


Sometimes I Wish Life Was Boring

by LENNYX



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Canon Compliant, Deaged Adam Parrish, Fluff and Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2020-10-24 13:17:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20706641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LENNYX/pseuds/LENNYX
Summary: “I’m Ronan, I’m a friend.”The kid frowns now, brows pinched and chin jut out. (God, he is Adam isn’t he?)“A friend? The Parrishs don’t have any friends.”“Sure you do, not your parents, but you do Adam. You’ve got friends.”The kid’s eyes scan Ronan’s face, studying him for a tell. Ronan has no idea why he feels so unnerved.“Did Mis Maguire tell then? Did they take me away from my parents like my ma said they would?” Ronan doesn’t lie, so he just averts his gaze, gnaws on his bottom lip. “Are they angry? They’re alright aren’t they?”“They’re fine kid.”Adam sucks in a breath, spindly arms crossed against his chest.“I’m scared. I don’t know you.”“I know,” Ronan tries not sounding so utterly helpless.





	Sometimes I Wish Life Was Boring

**Author's Note:**

> Based off a dialogue prompt sent by someone on Tumblr, "I'm going to take care of you."
> 
> The title is awful cuz I suck at thinking of them

Ronan wakes up unceremoniously on an ordinary Tuesday afternoon to the sound of muffled footsteps and clacking pans in the kitchen below.

No, not an ordinary Tuesday afternoon, not exactly. Not when Adam’s here, in the barns, with Ronan. It’s the first time in months that he’s been here for longer than a night or two at a time, and Ronan can hardly believe that the fall semester is finally over and he gets to actually stay here with no real time limit that makes everything feel like it’s entirely too fleeting.

Ronan feels his heart swell at the thought of finally having him here till at least mid January. Of them spending their second Christmas together as a couple, of getting to exchange champaign soaked kisses on New Year’s Ee, of just getting to exist in the domesticity of it all. 

He shuffles closer to the warmth of Adam’s conspicuously vacant side of the bed, plunges his head in the pillow that still smells like him— like lemons and sunlight and something distinctly Adam's own, tries his best not to get lost in the memories of what they’d done only a few hours prior. Ronan lies there for a moment more, waits for Adam to exit the bathroom or come back from studying in the den (where Ronan had left him before taking a lazy midday nap). But the noise from downstairs is really getting at him. He knows full and well if he allows Opal to act like a complete heathen, with this much noise now, that she’ll just take it and run. 

So with a long suffering sigh, Ronan rises from the warm duvet, slips on a pair of sweats and black tank before marching downstairs, a tongue lashing poised to pounce just as soon as he catches Opal making a muck of things…. The only problem is that once Ronan gets to the kitchen, it’s not Opal’s ratty old skullcap and impish smile that greets him. 

Ronan is face to face with a child, a little boy to be exact. He’s got a mop of sandy blonde curls that nearly covers his deep set, blue eyes, and a dusting of freckles dotting the tops of his cheeks and nose. The child’s nothing more than skin and bones, at least fifteen pounds underweight. He’s trembling in what must be some sort of fear, the spout of a teapot in one hand and the rest of it in another. 

Though if Ronan’s being honest, he can’t really spare a single fuck over that— his eyes are laser focussed on the too big, painfully familiar sweatshirt that he’s wearing— wearing is the wrong word, it’s more like he’s being swallowed up by it. It’s crimson colored and has got the word Harvard splayed out in large letters.

Ronan knows that sweater, had watched his boyfriend slink it back on only a bit ago before kissing Ronan and retreating back to look over his books and shit in the den.

Wholly fuck.

Ronan is definitely insane. He knows this. Ronan is insane which is literally the only reason why he’s even about to utter this name, but he needs to just get it out of the way. Speak it, confuse the kid, and then figure out what in actual hell is going on.

Ronan is fucking insane, which is why he’s opening his lips and actually speaking the name out loud.

“Adam.”

The kid shrinks back, eyes winced and shoulders clenched. 

“I—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it! I, I was just trying to get a glass of water and it slipped.”

It’s like Ronan feels it when his gut shrivels up and his chest plunges down to his stomach. He literally can’t process a thing.

“I’m sorry,” is all the kid says. No not kid… Adam. No, that’s still not right because if this was his Adam he would’ve just tossed it in the trash and probably buy Ronan a knew one— even if Ronan curses at him that he doesn’t need it. This Adam, this kid— he looks terrified— like he’d be punished for it. 

“Adam… Do you know who I am?”

The kids bottom lip starts to tremble, and their’s a distinct sheen to his big eyes. 

Ronan feels helpless. 

“I’m so sorry, please don’t tell my dad, I didn’t mean it.”

Ronan doesn’t give himself the time to curse a thousand more deaths— painful and twisted— towards Robert Parrish, instead he just shakes off the steaming hot fury, and kneels down in front of the kid— of Adam.

Jesus fucking Christ what is his life.

“Hey, it’s fine, you’re okay.”

Ronan reaches out to cup his shoulder reassuringly, but Adam just shutters back, terrified. 

Okay fine, Ronan spares himself one curse.

“Where, where am I? Who are you?”

Ronan reminds himself that if this is truly a kid Adam that it’s far before they ever met. Of course he doesn’t know who the fuck Ronan is. It’s not Ronan’s fault, and Adam— his Adam— Will be back soon. His Adam had loved him, that just doesn’t go away. This is only temporary. 

God please let this only be temporary, Ronan can’t imagine it not. Can’t imagine finally having him and then forced to let go, to lose him in a new, cruel way. More inventive than the death of his parents, because this would mean that Ronan doesn’t have the right to mourn him, only what they had. He would have to watch Adam grow up and become a man and Ronan would be absolutely nothing to him.

A voice whispers in Ronan’s ear that he’s being a fucking selfish prick, that maybe this is a blessing, a second chance for Adam. A chance where he doesn’t have to grow up with fucking Robert and Claudia Parrish. That he could be safe and tended to and appreciated like he deserved by some new parents. He never has to know what it feels like to be taken over by some dream forest or discover one of your best friends is dead and another is destined to die a second time before actually coming to life. A chance that he could meet someone better than Ronan, someone on his level.

God damn it.

Ronan crinkles his fingers to a fist and keeps it to his side, looks straight into the kids eyes.

“I’m Ronan, I’m a friend.”

The kid frowns now, brows pinched and chin jut out. 

God, he is Adam isn’t he.

“A friend? The Parrishs don’t have any friends.”

“Sure you do, not your parents, but you do Adam. You’ve got friends.”

The kid’s eyes scan Ronan’s face, studying him for a tell. Ronan has no idea why he feels so unnerved.

“Did Mis Maguire tell then? Did they take me away from my parents like my ma said they would?”

Ronan doesn’t lie, so he just averts his gaze, gnaws on his bottom lip.

“Are they okay?”

“They’re fine kid.”

He purses his lips, spindly arms crossed against his chest.

“I’m scared. I don’t know you.”

“I know,” Ronan tries not sounding so utterly helpless. “But I’m going to take care of you, okay?”

“Okay…”

.-

“He smells like Adam,” Opal announces, blunt.

“I am Adam?” The kid replies from where he’s curled into a tiny little ball on the couch, eyeing Opal like she’s a completely new species— thank god she’s still got on her boots, Ronan can’t imagine the kid’s reaction to seeing a set of hooves on her.

By the time Ronan got him to change into some of Matthew’s old clothes, and had called Blue— demanding her to come over and bring whatever fucking voodoo books she and the witches of Fox Way study, Opal had come in from a day of exploring around the barns— mud splattered and preening, curious as all get out once she spotted him. 

“You’re too small,” she tells him, making Adam’s face go a furious red. 

“You’re barely taller than me!”

“Adam’s nearly as tall as Kerah,” Opal sniffs, head tilted imperiously.

“Who is Kerah!” 

Before Ronan is forced to get between that brawl, the doorbell mercifully rings.

“Ronan, I’ve missed you,” Gansey— as glimmering as always— greets while walking in, a stack of pizzas in one hand and the other used to give Ronan a one armed hug.

“We were having a movie night,” Blue informs him. “Considering it’s Adam’s first day back we thought you two were gonna spend at least a week catching up on lost time… Though that is unless your stamina isn’t up to par?”

Ronan bares his teeth at her and Blue just cackles ebulliently. 

“Speaking of which, where is our darling Henrietta prince?” Henry asks, setting down the soda on the coffee table and looking around the room confusedly. “Thought at the very least you two would be attached at the hips.”

“When I show you pricks, you can’t make a fucking deal out of it in front of him, got it.”

“Oo,” Henry beams. “Mysterious~”

“What did you do,” Gansey asks worriedly. 

“Fucking nothing— or something. I don’t know, just don’t make him frazzled.”

They chorus their agreement, and Ronan takes a deep breath before leading them into the other room, met by Adam and Opal arguing over something about Adam being too skinny— both pint-sized and loud as all hell. 

“Lynch what the actual fuck—“ Blue marvels, causing both Adam and Opal to swivel their gazes around to the foursome.

Adam’s face goes flushed at the sight of Blue, and Ronan kind of hates everything. 

“I brought more friends.”

Adam stays quiet, just nods at Ronan and focusses on how he can knot his fingers together. 

Gansey’s the first one to step up, crouching in front of him. Ronan would like to say it’s all because of his intellectual curiosity, but knows full and well that the slightly broken look to his features is the same sort that Ronan’s been sporting for the past hour.

“Adam?” he asks, adjusting his wireframe glasses with a nervous sort of tension. 

The kid nods.

“Seriously Lynch the fuck did you do?” Henry skewers him with a look, but Ronan can’t help but feel like he deserves it.

“Nothing! I’m telling you! One moment he’s leaving our bed to go study and the next, boom. I wake up and he’s, he’s—“

“I’m sorry, is the first thing Adam says in front of everyone, voice small and self deprecating. “If I’m being too much trouble, I can go home now. It’s okay.”

“Hey!” Ronan very nearly barks. “Don’t be ridiculous kid, I told you I’m gonna take care of you, right?”

Adam doesn’t answer, but Blue swats at his arm, glaring. “Chill, won’t you.”

“Figure this out!” Ronan counters, desperate. “Won’t you.”

aggrieved, Blue just rolls her eyes heavenwards before taking a seat besides Adam.

“Hey hon,” she starts nice and slow. “You’re not any trouble at all. But can we just ask you a couple questions?”

Adam gives her a one armed shrug. “Sure thing.”

“God he’s so adorable,” Henry gushes. Ronan feels totally justified when he elbow checks him in the stomach, hard.

“Okay,” Blue smiles kindly. “So what’s the last thing you remember?” 

Adam starts shaking again, hands clenched tight.

“M—My dad, he was mad.” One of his hands inch towards his forearm, and Ronan hates the thought that there’s a mark there— a bruise. “B—But I don’t remember much of it, when he’s like that it’s helpful to think of other stuff, like school and the cookies Ms Edna down the street makes sometimes… It helps me not feel anything totally.”

Ronan feels fucking sick.

He wants to drive into Henrietta proper and beat that bastard to a pulp all over again. He wants to not stop either.

“Is that the last thing you remember?” Blue asks, voice equal parts sad and quiet. 

“I think I fell asleep, and then someone must’ve brung me here,” Adam says. “Was I s’pose to come?”

“Yes, positively Adam. You’re meant to be here,” Gansey tells him immediately.

Ronan wants to ensure Adam that he won’t ever have to go back to that place, but if this really is just a temporary blimp in the cosmos, that would be a lie. And Ronan could never lie to any version of Adam.

He thinks that Gansey and Blue feel much of the same way if the fraught look in their eyes is anything to go by.

“Gansey, Henry, why don’t you take Adam out to the back. Show him the cows and chickens and sheep.” Blue suggests in an obvious ploy to get to talk to Ronan alone. 

“I’ll show them the way,” Opal says, chest puffed out and marching ahead like a general leading her troops.

Ronan doesn’t miss the way Adam rolls his eyes at her.

“So what! The fuck is going on!” Ronan asks once they’re gone.

“I’m not sure,” Blue tells him, biting down on her lip and reaching for the large, dusty looking book she had brought. “He was fine after we separated when we got back from that eclectic shop in DC, right?”

“He was perfect.” Ronan sits besides her, tries to feel like his world isn’t tilting off orbit and speaks out loud the fear that’s been squirming in the back of his mind. “What if this is part of that circular time shit you witches are always talking about? Like Cabeswater and all that?”

Blue shakes her head, doubtless, and Ronan’s suddenly, acutely thankful that she’s here with him, figuring it out. Blue’s always a grounding presence, she cuts out all the crap and figures out the black and white of the situation, they’ve always been alike with that practice. “He’s still deaf in the left ear, I could tell by how much he was toying with it. And he’s still got that cut on his upper lip from—“ She doesn’t have to finish the sentence, they’re still all too raw from it, unable to think of those hellish hours even now. “So, ah, yeah. He hasn’t like switched places with his younger self, it’s more like he’s been transformed back to that state. Did he ever tell you how old he was?”

“Seven and a half,” Ronan answers mechanical. 

“Jesus, a small ass seven year old.”

Ronan doesn’t respond, and Blue swallows down the thickness in her throat.

“Okay, so he’s most likely only got the memories up to that age also.”

“Then what!” Ronan almost screams.

“I don’t know!” Blue actually does shout, and he can finally take in the wetness to her eyes and how she’s shaking so much that one of the sleeves of her sweater has slipped off to expose one brown shoulder. She’s just as scared and confused as him, all of them are.

Ronan bows his head, a silent apology, and Blue nods her own, excepting it.

“You sure nothing weird happened?” Blue asks, and Ronan rattles his brain for any innocuous thing that might’ve caused this.

“No, no, we got home, fooled around a bit and then….”

“Okay, before that then.” Blue presses. “Nothing strange when we were in DC?”

“No,” Ronan repeats emphatically. “We stayed away from all that weird mojo killing shit like you said.”

“Are you sure!” Blue asks again, shrewd.

“Yes! We were just looking at the normal, drugstore shit they kept in the back.”

“What normal shit?” Blue wrinkles her nose at him, scathing. 

“I dunno,” Ronan toots. “Those cheep ass plastic stars you can stick on your ceiling, the ones that glow up. I told him how Niall had dreamt me and my brother up some that were literal consolations.”

“And what did Adam say to that?” Blue asks critically.

“I don’t fucking remember what he exactly said!” Ronan harrumphs, helpless.

“Ronan, please for the love of God, if you ever want our Adam back, stop being such an ass and figure it out!” Blue scolds, looking like she might literally fume— as if she were a Disney cartoon or some shit.

Suitably scolded, Ronan sifts through his memories of the morning. Of Adam’s radiant smile, and husky laugh, and the way the sunlight turned his pale brown hair tawny in the light of day. Ronan remembers feeling so inn love with him, and so utterly sad when Adam had just shrugged, blasé, when saying that Robert’s never done anything like that for him. That he’s never had any real childhood.

Ronan and Blue figure it out at the same exact moment.

“Oh fuck.” They chorus.

“Do you think that was enough?” 

“Probably!” Blue scrambles up, calls for Gansey to give her a ride back to Fox Way. “I told you guys that it wasn’t a place to screw around in!”

“How was I suppose to know!” Ronan shouts back.

Gansey races in, wearing one of Opal’s pink bows in his hair and eyes frantic.

“I’m gonna ask my mom and Calla if they have the shop owners number, maybe they’ll know what to do.”

“Um, yes, spot on. But darling what did you two figure out.”

“No time,” Ronan and Blue say in unison, both of them practically shoving him out the door.

“I’ll call if we figure anything out.

“Fucking hurry,” Ronan shouts after her.

.-

It’s been at least a quarter of an hour since Blue and Gansey had raced out, probably half way to Henrietta with how Gansey drives, and Ronan feels like their’s an itching squirming beneath his skin. He can’t sit down or do anything but compulsively check his phone, heart lodged in his throat and the memory of Adam’s— his Adam’s— thin lipped half grin directed at Ronan. Soft and splendid and glittering. 

Ronan has no idea how to keep that memory forever in his mind’s eye if it turns out he’ll never get to see that warmth directed at him again. Knows in his heart that he’ll never want to feel that same sort of devotion for anyone else, that he can’t ever feel anything akin to what he felt for Adam.

Speaking of which….

Ronan hear’s the backdoor open with a clack, and gets up to find the kid— sweaty and smiling in a way he knows in his heart he’s never smiled while in the trailer park.

“Hey kid.”

“Hi,” he blinks up at him, suddenly a bit reticent. “Opal and Henry are still in her tree house having a tea party, but I got thirsty for something real.”

Ronan quirks up his lip humorously. 

“The fridge’s water is filtered, let me get you a glass pipsqueak.”

Adam’s face glows ten fold just as Ronan hands it to him with a pack of cookies, (oatmeal and raisin the weirdos favorite.)

“Thank you Mr.”

Ronan can feel the blood drain out his face with how weird that is to hear.

“Ronan, just call me Ronan.”

Adam just shrugs with a nod, inhaling a third cookie, ravenous. Ronan offers to make him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich too, reckons that he can at least start to get some meat on his frame. 

Adam nods giddily, probably accustomed not to be passing up food when it’s offered.

“So is this place all yours?” Adam asks, owlish. 

“My family’s, yeah,” Ronan tells him, pretends not to see the wistful look in his eyes. This place must be a fortress to him, who’s only ever known the doublewide. 

“It’s really great.”

“Thanks,” Ronan snorts, caps the jelly before tossing it back in the fridge and cuts up a banana next to the sandwich. 

“Where’s your family then?”

Yeah, Ronan supposes he should’ve seen that one coming.

“Ah, my parents aren’t around anymore,” he swallows down the thickness in his throat, concentrates on pouring a glass of milk.

“I’m sorry,” Adam says, nibbling on a fourth cookie.

“Don’t ruin your appetite kid,” Ronan reproves with no heat, sets the meal in front of him.

“So it’s just you in this huge castle?” Adam asks, feet kicking up and down in the air.

“Yeah, pretty much. My brothers are in the city, so it’s just me and Opal and…. Ah, my boyfriend.” Ronan isn’t sure why he says that, but is glad he did.

Adam is regarding him curiously now, big eyes peering up at Ronan while he takes a swig of the milk, and fingers tapping an unbalanced staccato on the counter top.

“Cool,” Adam says and Ronan feels a ridiculous amount of relief by. “I’m gonna live in a castle someday too.”

“Oh yeah?” Ronan smiles at him, elastic and charmed.

“Mmhmm, my dad’s gonna be so proud. Ma too.”

Ronan frowns now, heart sinking. 

“You don’t have to make them proud Adam, you’re great.”

Adam reddens, and Ronan slowly realizes that he’s probably never heard that from anyone before. So he repeats it. 

“You’re great kid.”

“Thanks,” Adam mumbles before stuffing another banana slice in his mouth, effectively cutting the conversation short. Already a pro at diversion. 

Ronan feels his phone buzz, sees a message from Blue.

Maggot: We figured it out  
Maggot: Headed ur way rn with a cure

Ronan thanks God, Jesus, and the Wholly Ghost above.

.-

Adam races towards blue once she and Gansey walk in, and she kisses the top of his forehead, a ginger hand carding through his hair.

Ronan is not petty.

She sends him to get the final ingredients of the freaky spell, drink concoction that Calla had brewed, (a piece of his Adam’s clothing for the kid to wear while he’s asleep, and fucking Olive Oil of all things). And when Ronan gets back, Blue is preening and the kid isn’t looking straight at Ronan. 

They give him the drink to swallow and tell him to change before he’s off to sleep. 

Adam rubs his eyes with a yawn. 

“I don’t wanna go back to the doublewide,” he tells Ronan while they all tuck him into bed. 

“You won’t go back,” Ronan says with conviction, ruffled his disheveled locks before picking him up and placing him in the center of Declan’s old bed— it felt to skeevy to put him in the one they ordinarily share as partners. 

It’s Henry who blankets him in and Gansey reads him an old fairytale from Aurora’s favorite storybook till he’s fast asleep. 

“He looks like such an angel,” Henry croons. 

“I know,” Blue beams.

“Get the fuck out before you wake him up too early!” Ronan gripes.

They all decide to just stay the night at the Barns, to ensure everything’s alright with Adam in the morning. 

“You know Lynch,” Blue preens like the cat that’s gotten into the cream. “You put a number on that kid.”

“Shut up,” Ronan huffs, passes over her cup of tea before pouring his own.

“It was so cute!” Blue insists. “When you were upstairs getting that old T-shirt, you should’ve heard him talk about you. Even admitted to me he had a little crush, asked if your boyfriend was just as pretty as you.”

Ronan’s heart does a stupid, hiccup, and he feels his skin burn red. Fuck his pale Irish ass.

“What did you tell’m?”

“I mean the truth, that your boyfriend is leagues ahead of you, but hey the kid wasn’t convinced.”

Ronan tosses her the bird, tries to tempt down the ridiculously gleeful grin that threatens to tear his face in half.

He must look like such a lune.

.-

Ronan wakes up the next day with the sensation of someone stepping on his diaphragm.

“Oh shit,” Adam— still sleep drunk and groggy, says apologetically. His tuffs of hair spread out every which way and delicious mouth set in a pout.

But it’s him.

It’s his Adam, beautiful and whole and there.

Ronan leaps off from where he was lying outside Declan’s door and crashes into him, squeezing Adam as close as physically possible— them pressed chest to chest and Ronan plunging his nose into the hallow of Adam’s long neck, taking him in completely.

“Ronan?” Adam asks deliriously.

“God fucking damn it Parrish, don’t ever leave again.”

“Where did I go?” Adam asks, confused, is surprised when Opal, from out of no where, pops up and takes him by the hand adoringly.

“You smell like Adam,” she grins.

“Erm, I am Adam?”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so so so much for reading!!!! It would mean the moon and stars to me if you left a comment below letting me know what you thought!!!! <3<3
> 
> Please come gush about Pynch with me on [Tumblr](http://Lenuxxx.tumblr.com)!!!!
> 
> With love!  
~Len


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